Tag Archives: Manchester Gorton

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Diary Blog, 24 January 2026, including thoughts about Churchill, 1940, and some of the disastrous consequences of the Second World War

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Morning music

[Adolf Hitler, 1913, Roses]

Saturday quiz

5/10 this week, trumping the 3/10 of political journalist John Rentoul. I knew the answers to questions 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8.

Tweets seen

The poisoning of the world and the global conversation.

Why would they do that? Wherever they go, they cause trouble.

“Uniparty”…

Someone who killed several great empires: the German Reich, then (after 1945, when subject peoples were eventually allowed “independence” because the European nations were exhausted) the French, Belgian, Spanish, Portuguese etc, and…the British Empire as well.

Had Churchill not blagged his way into taking over as Prime Minister in 1940, an honourable armistice might have been, and almost certainly would have been, concluded between the British Empire and the German Reich.

Western and Central Europe would thus have been saved from the ravages of war, and Eastern Europe from at least some of the ravages of war. Stalinism would either have been defeated in the field, or contained east of the Urals. Eastern and parts of Central Europe would then not have fallen under the rule of the Soviet Union in the 1940s (which rule of course lasted until the late 1980s).

In such a scenario, there would have been no premature decolonization in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. Massive damage to the environment and wildlife would have been largely averted.

That never happened, mainly because Churchill became Prime Minister of the UK. Almost everything else was consequential.

Disastrous.

We in the UK would also have avoided being gradually and largely taken over by the “you know who” special interest tribe. Oh, and would never have been invaded, whether by Windrush (etc) Caribbeans or by rubber boat migrant-invaders from every failed state in the world.

More music

[Ludlow Castle, Shropshire]

More tweets

My blog posts from summer 2024 clearly show my own understanding of the early failure of both Starmer-stein and his Labour Friends of Israel misgovernment.

As for the constituency of Gorton and Denton, one of its predecessor constituencies, the main one, was Manchester Gorton, whose MP 1955-1967 was Konni Zilliacus, a crypto-Communist (according to George Orwell) of both Swedish-Finnish and American origins, and whose aged American widow de facto (they never actually married) I knew slightly when I lived in the Little Venice area of London in the 1980s (mainly); she was the friend of a friend: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konni_Zilliacus; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konni_Zilliacus#Personal_life; https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-jan-zilliacus-1097376.html.

Konni Zilliacus was of affluent background, and had attended both Bedales (school) in Hampshire and, later, Yale.

The Zilliacuses met both Stalin and Tito, inter alia, during the late 1940s.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Loyd.

I used to find it tiring (and boring) rowing on the Thames (when I was at school, well over half a century ago), but these people row the Atlantic! What a feat.

The allegation is not new, but plausible confirmation may be.

Late tweets

Allegorical, if one thinks of UK System-politics…

Only real social-national policies can now save this country.

I, on the other hand, will presume that Irene Coslet herself is a Jewish woman, until I see evidence to the contrary. She may not be Jewish, in fact, but there is certainly more likelihood of her being Jewish than there is of Shakespeare having been a Jew.

We no longer have academia in this country, but a kind of degenerate pseudo-academia. “They”, of course, are well represented therein.

Those blurred lines are mainly, though not entirely, a legacy of the “Covid” scamdemic/panicdemic.

See also:

One Man’s “Extremism” is Another Man’s Struggle for Liberty and Justice

Britain must leave NATO, stay out of the EU, cold-shoulder Israel, and forge new and strong links with the Russian Federation.

Late talking point

Late music

by-elections, elections, MPs, Party Politics, Russia and Russian relations, Uncategorized

Manchester Gorton By-Election

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Introduction

Manchester Gorton, one of the most solidly Labour constituencies in the UK, was represented 1955-1967 by Konni Zilliacus, an interesting character who was acquainted with many of the most significant political figures of the 20th Century (his widow, whom I met a few times, carried on in the local Labour Party of Maida Vale, London until her death in 1999).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konni_Zilliacus

The recent death of Gerald Kaufman MP (a famously anti-Zionist Jew, MP for the seat since 1983 and for a neighbouring seat from 1970-1983) has triggered a by-election, though the date (probably 4 May 2017) is yet to be confirmed. It follows that there is still time for candidates to be nominated (e.g. the Conservative Party has not yet selected its candidate).

At present, the candidate list includes those of Labour, Green Party, Liberal Democrat and, standing as Independent, George Galloway. UKIP may or may not stand. Previous elections in the seat have attracted a host of minor candidates: Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition [TUSC], Pirate, Christian, Workers’ Revolutionary Party [WRP], Resolutionist Party, Socialist Labour; and going back further, Revolutionary Communist, Red Front, Natural Law, BNP (only in 1983), National Front (only in 1979) etc.

Manchester Gorton is a Labour seat, has always been Labour, right back beyond the creation of the seat in 1918 and further back to when it was called South-East Lancashire, Gorton Division: Labour won in 1906 and in 1910 (twice). This is rock-solid Labour Party territory and considered to rank as the 9th-most-Labour seat in the UK

http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/orderedseats.html.

The Labour vote in Manchester Gorton has only once (since 1918 anyway) fallen below 50% [1967 by-election: just below 46%] and peaked in 1945 at over 69%, though Gerald Kaufman almost equalled that in 2015, with just over 67%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Gorton_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2010s.

Analysis

There is no prospect of Labour losing in Manchester Gorton. It is a question of how many voters turn out and of the margin of Labour’s inevitable win. Turnout, at one time over 70% and even over 80%, has fallen back in recent years [2015: nearly 58%]. The other points of interest will revolve around the votes garnered by UKIP (if standing), the Liberal Democrats and George Galloway.

29% of the voters of Manchester Gorton are ethnic Pakistanis. The most recent ICM polling has made clear that the Conservative Party is preferred to Labour by every standard demographic except non-whites. The Labour shortlist contained 5 candidates, all Pakistani Muslims.

The Conservative Party always came second in Manchester Gorton until 1997, since which year it has always come third and always third to the Liberal Democrats, until 2015, when the general LibDem slaughter led to their 2010 vote share of 33% collapsing to 4%, which put the LibDems only fifth (after UKIP). Since 1997, the Conservative Party vote has always been around 10%, compared to 20%+ in the 1980s and 30%+ in 1970s. In the 1967 by-election, the Conservative candidate was Winston Churchill, grandson of the former Prime Minister. Winston junior nearly won that by-election, getting 44.51% as against Labour’s 45.89%.

Interestingly enough, the 2015 Liberal Democrat rout did not help the Conservative candidate: third place and 9.7% as against 11% in 2010. Second place went to the Green Party , which got 9.8%, its previous best having been 3.1% (in 2001).

The 2015 UKIP vote was 8.2% (2010, 2.7%). Likely 2017 vote would be around 5%.

George Galloway has attacked the all-Asian Labour shortlist. This may indicate that he is hoping to attract to his banner English (i.e. white) former Labour voters who were willing to vote for Kaufman but will not vote for a Pakistani Muslim as their MP. A proposition which may be flawed. Abstention is more likely, in my opinion.

Conclusion

There is nothing much to disturb the inevitable Labour victory here.

  • The Pakistani Muslim demographic will turn out in large numbers for the Labour candidate and that alone will ensure a Labour win.
  • The Conservatives may see a small increase, no more, in vote share.
  • The same is true of the Liberal Democrats. This is an area hard hit by the spending cuts of the Con Coalition, which was propped up by 2010-2015 LibDem MPs’ votes. On the other hand, there is the “dustbin” or “catch-all” factor.
  • George Galloway will probably only get a few per cent of the vote (hard to see who would vote for him either from white or non-white communities, despite his new role as TV face on RT).
  • The Greens will have achieved a victory if they save their deposit.
  • If UKIP stand, they will be lucky to save their deposit.

In the end, turnout may be very low. The white former Labour voters may well vote with their feet and stay home and Labour will probably see both its vote numbers and vote percentage fall to some extent, but Labour has in its favour the fact that almost a third of the voters are Pakistani Muslims and that there are other non-white groups in the constituency.

Likely result:

1.Labour;

2.Liberal Democrats;

3.Conservatives;

4.Green;

5.UKIP (if standing).

Postscript, written in early 2018

In the event, a General Election was called and the by-election was cancelled. Almost all candidates standing in the constituency at the General Election were the same as had been candidates in the cancelled by-election.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Gorton_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2010s